The continental malacofauna of Arabia and adjacent areas, VII. The family Achatinidae (Coeliaxinae, Subulininae) in the
- PDF / 4,630,031 Bytes
- 22 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 81 Downloads / 154 Views
SOCOTRA BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH AND NATURE CONSERVATION
The continental malacofauna of Arabia and adjacent areas, VII. The family Achatinidae (Coeliaxinae, Subulininae) in the Socotran Archipelago (Gastropoda, Pulmonata) Eike Neubert1,2 · Estée Bochud1,2 Received: 24 December 2019 / Accepted: 9 June 2020 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2020
Abstract The endemic fauna of achatinoid terrestrial molluscs for the Socotran Archipelago (Yemen) is revised. The main group falls into two genera, viz. Riebeckia E. v. Martens, 1883 with five species and Balfouria Crosse, 1884 with seven species, two of which are here described as new to science, i.e. Balfouria nitida n. sp., and Balfouria minima n. sp. Another globally distributed species could be found, and the endemic Zootecus species of the outer island of Abd el-Kuri is illustrated. The highly specialised shell structure of Balfouria is discussed, which is used to camouflage the animals with a mixture of clay and mucus protecting the shell during the individual lifetime of a specimen. Keywords Terrestrial malacology · Socotra · Achatinidae · Riebeckia · Balfouria
1 Introduction This paper continues the series on the terrestrial malacology of Arabia and north-eastern Africa (Neubert 1998, 2002, 2003a, b, 2004, 2005a, b, 2009). In this area, the Achatinidae form a major faunal element, with enigmatic species and genera inhabiting the humid and cold Abyssinian Highlands to the arid coastal plains of Southern Arabia. One of the evolutionary hotspots is certainly the Socotran Archipelago, home to almost 100 endemic species of terrestrial molluscs (own data). This revision is based on the results of two visits of the authors to Socotra, i.e. February 1999 (Neubert) and February 2013 (Neubert and Bochud). In addition, until today, This paper belongs to a Topical Collection “Twenty years of biodiversity research and nature conservation in the Socotra Archipelago” edited by Fabio Attorre and Kay Van Damme, conceived at the 18th Friends of Socotra Conference, 26–29 September, 2019, Orto Botanico di Palermo, Palermo, Italy. * Eike Neubert [email protected] 1
Natural History Museum of the Burgergemeinde Bern, Bernastrasse 15, 3005 Bern, Switzerland
Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
2
several visitors and researchers collected snails to be identified, so a quite rich portfolio of localities could be checked critically also for Achatinidae. It has to be stressed that the region east of the Haggiehr Mountains has not been visited by shell collecting people so far; thus, the gap that appears on the distribution maps is artificial, it does not necessarily reflect the natural distribution patterns of species. As most other snail species, the Achatinidae of Socotra aestivate during the dry seasons, which is the most attractive visiting time for collectors. Living generally on the ground, these snails hide for aestivation in cracks in the substrate or deep in rock crevices. As a result, only very few specimens could be found aliv
Data Loading...
